The United States spent the decades after World War II building a global architecture designed to outlast any single administration: the United Nations, NATO, the Bretton Woods institutions, mutual defense treaties spanning continents. These were investments in stability that assumed American leaders would think in generational timeframes. That assumption is increasingly difficult to sustain. Today, electoral cycles, quarterly earnings reports, social media cycles, and the relentless pressure of the 24-hour news machine have compressed American strategic thinking to spans measured in months rather than decades. The institutions that once anchored global order are fraying as the United States withdraws from multilateral commitments, renegotiates long-standing alliances, and operate from crisis to crisis. Whether this represents a temporary correction or a fundamental reorientation of American power remains unclear, but the contrast with the patient, systematic institution-building of the postwar era is sharp and consequential.